Left Out in the Cold, Some Spectators Are Really Hot

NAGANO, Japan —  Transportation snarled Saturday at Nagano station as hundreds of chilled spectators stood in line for more than an hour to board a single, once-an-hour bus to Hakuba, where Sunday’s men’s downhill ski race was scheduled.

Foreign tourists complained of a lack of signs in English, directions to events in English, or English speakers who could tell them when--and if--more buses would arrive.

Frantic officials could be heard on their cellular telephones begging for more buses, but the fresh buses that appeared were immediately swamped by fresh waves of spectators.

“Nagano is not qualified for the Olympics because it’s such a country town,” fumed a middle-aged Japanese man who declined to give his name but wore the emblem of the Japan Ski Assn. “The foreigners are the ones who are having the hardest time.”

The organizers “aren’t thinking about the spectators, they’re thinking about the business of running the games,” said the man, who had arrived from Tokyo by bullet train and had been waiting 40 minutes for a bus.

Said Don Rokop of Los Alamos, N.M.: “We all got lost.”

Even so, he and his friends ultimately made it to the opening ceremony. Despite reports that security has been tightened, Rokop said he was allowed to walk right into the sold-out event without anyone checking his ticket, and ended up passing within five feet of Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto.

Louis Mercorelli of Canton, Ohio, said he had no trouble getting tickets to the opening ceremony and the ski race from a British scalper, but that it took him more than two hours to return from the opening ceremony because of crushing crowds and insufficient trains back to town.

After waiting for a bus to Hakuba for more than an hour, he was ready to spring for $100 for a taxi to the ski venue--but the line for taxis was almost as long as for the buses.

Most tourists were putting up with the delays with good humor, however.

“Of course you can irritate yourself, but it’s fun standing in queues with lots of people,” said Dr. Kaare Norum, a Norwegian ski enthusiast and veteran of the Lillehammer and Oslo Winter Games.

Asked if all the waiting was worth it, Mercorelli didn’t miss a beat.

“Of course,” he said. “It’s the Olympics.”